WARRIORS, come out to play.

This week was full and will be full of warrior excitement.
Sure there was that golf tournament on TV, but I don't know (or feel like I know) any of those people as there was no sign of Tim Herron, and Brett Ogle retired many years ago.
Sure there was the London Marathon that I woke up to watch at 5:30am on Sunday live on the internet. Too bad Ryan Hall wasn't able to quite keep up, but heck, finishing 1 minute behnd for his third ever marathon, and besting his Olympic Trials time by 2.5-3 minutes is exceptional! go Ryan!

What I'm talking about are us mere mortals, and lets start where credit is most due:

1- My friend Mark, whom I ran 3M with under 1hr30 last year, finished the Arizona IronMan yesterday with an exceptional time of 11hours 50 minutes! He was flying! I kept up with his time splits on the web all day, and watched the live internet feed too, and got to see him cross the finishline. He looked so so happy it gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes.

2- My friend "Vegas" (Suzanne Y) also finished IronMan Arizona!! I checked her stats all day too!!
Congratulations, Mark and Vegas, You are now an IRONMAN! woo hooo!!

3- My friend Ralph Stanley, also completed IronMan Arizona, his second year in a row! I checked his stats all day too. It's worth mentioning that Ralph is in the 50-54 Age Group and has a bumm knee, so he purposely (like last year) speed walked the marathon "run" portion! What a stud!!! AND, he bettered his time from last year! Congrats, Ralph, YOU are a two-time IRONMAN!

Incidentally, for you non-runners reading this, an IRONMAN is 2.4M(3.6km)Swim, 112M(180km)Bike, AND a Marathon => 26.2Miles (42.195KM)

You three are freaking unbelievable!!! Thanks for inspiring me!

4- Panther (one of my past coaches, and now good friend) ran the "Bun Run", a local 5km road race, in a kickbutt time of 18:04! He's a stud!

5- Another good friend, Shorey, is on a business trip in Miami this week, so she decided to quietly board the plane on Friday with her bike and gear, and raced a Triathlon in Miami. She got 8th in her Age Group! Yeah!!

6- Yours truly. I tempo'd my way, then picked up the pace for the last 2miles of the 10k trail race I ran, and, well, you can read the rest in the report below... but a respectable 4th in Age Group.

7- My friends, Dan, Paul and Meredith picked up medals (coffee mugs, actually) at that 10K i ran. We all know he's a legend and a stud runner, but still worth noting that Paul got 2nd overall!!

9- Trey (husband of Nedra as most know) biked from Houston to Austin as part of the MS-150 ride. That's 150 miles in two days for those of you sitting on your couches eating Cheetos. Way to go, Trey!

8- They didn't race, but I think props also go out to Dionn and Erin who put in 100+ miles on the bike, and 30+ miles on the road (run) as part of their triathlon season training.

9- Tomorrow, our adopted Lacrosse team (the Westwood Warriors) take on McNeil im a MUST win game at the "Palace" off Parmer up there near Waco. Come out and join us for some free fun packed action, and loud mouth cheering! Face off is at 8pm.
WestWOOOD!!!

10- Kerry and I drive out to Smithville this coming Saturday for a 25km Trail race (15Miles). Should be fun, and post race celebratory beer will be drankened by 9:30am.

11- My Boston qualifier peeps fly out to Boston this weekend to run the legendary marathon next Monday. Good luck Bruce, Ken, Geezer and all others! Marathon gods willing, I'll be there next year.)

So there you have it.
We, are all WARRIORS.